The Body of Christ

I've been occasionally reading a book entitled Holy Longing: a search for Christian Spirituality by Ronald Rolheiser. Though a Roman Catholic he successfully strives to present a balanced view of Christian Spirituality across both protestant and Roman Catholic perspectives. Yesterday, I read his remarks on the Body of Christ. Despite differing opinions about Eucharistic Theology and the definition of the "Church Universal", Protestants and Catholic tend to believe that we (that is practicing Christians) are the Body of Christ in the world. Rolheiser gets very interesting when talks the relationship between the Body of Christ and our prayer life. He observes that we often pray to God to handle something but often smother the answer of the Body of Christ within us. Often, we beg God to intercede on a situation, but we don't free the Body of Christ in us, the Body of Christ that is us, to act. This sounds mighty close to Ghandi's charge "to be the change we wish to see in the world".

I found Rolheiser's discussion very convicting this week. My prayers of recent have been reports of frustration, but I haven't been open to the changes within me, open to the voice that could speak through me, that could heal the frustrations. I wish to let go of the fears and inhibitions, the anger and the arrogance that silence the Christ within me. My prayer for help do not change, my willingness to hear and act on the answers must.